A1 Grammar · Unit 13 · Topic 27 of 30

Introduction to Past Tense (Perfekt)

About 3 minutes · tables, common mistakes and practice with answers

In short

By the end of A1 you'll recognize and start using the spoken past tense. It's built with haben or sein plus a past participle. Enough to talk about what you did yesterday or last weekend.

The Perfekt

The German Perfekt tense: haben or sein plus past participle

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This is the past tense you'll hear most in conversation. haben or sein goes in position 2 and the past participle goes to the end. Regular verbs build the participle with ge- … -t. Verbs of movement from A to B, like fahren and kommen, use sein.

हिंदी में समझें

बातचीत में बीती बात के लिए यही सबसे ज़्यादा सुनाई देता है। haben या sein दूसरे नंबर पर और Partizip II आख़िर में। Regular verbs में Partizip ge- … -t से बनता है (gemacht)। एक जगह से दूसरी जगह जाने वाले verbs, जैसे fahren और kommen, sein लेते हैं।

The Perfekt is the past tense you use in everyday speech. It has two parts: a helper verb (haben or sein) in position 2, and the past participle at the end.

Most verbs use haben. Movement verbs (gehen, fahren, kommen) use sein.

Regular verbs: ge- + stem + -t: gelernt, gemacht, gekauft.

Irregular verbs: ge- + stem + -en, often with a vowel change: gesprochen, getrunken, geschrieben.

InfinitiveHelperParticiple
lernenhatgelernt
kochenhatgekocht
essenhatgegessen
lesenhatgelesen
gehenistgegangen
fliegenistgeflogen

Common Mistakes in Introduction to Past Tense (Perfekt)

Don't forget the helper. "Ich gelernt" is wrong. It's "Ich habe gelernt." And movement verbs use sein, not haben: "Ich bin nach Berlin gefahren," not "Ich habe nach Berlin gefahren."

Memory trick

Haben or sein, participle at the end. Movement to a place uses sein. Did I go somewhere? If yes, sein.

Practice

Put in the Perfekt.

  1. Ich ___ Deutsch ___. (lernen)
  2. Er ___ nach Hause ___. (gehen)
  3. Wir ___ Tee ___. (trinken)
Show answers

Answers: habe / gelernt, ist / gegangen, haben / getrunken.

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